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Ogun State government enjoins youths to join army, plans to deworm 839,273 school children

By Bukky Olajide, Abeokuta
22 November 2019   |   3:13 am
Ogun State Governor Dapo Abiodun yesterday said that the state would sensitise students in the state on what they stand to gain by joining the army.

Ogun State Governor Dapo Abiodun yesterday said that the state would sensitise students in the state on what they stand to gain by joining the army.

He also said that the state government would serve as ambassadors and talk to children on various career paths available in the military.

“All of us who perhaps did not have the opportunity to join the military, we will also be your ambassadors and try and talk to our children to look at these options and join the military,” he said.

Abiodun stated this during the ‘Brain Gain 2’ programme embarked on by the Nigerian Armed Forces.

He said that the exercise, which was meant to sensitise young school leavers across the country of opportunities in the armed forces, was a welcome development.

Abiodun, represented by his deputy, Noimot Salako-Oyedele, said that the exercise was a worthy one coming at a time when lots of people are undecided on where they want to go.

He added that the sensitisation programme would aid lots of young indigenes of the state to choose a career in the military.

This exercise, Abiodun also said, was coming at a time when a lot of our youths are lacklustre about a career in the military because the glamour of democratic rule has taken the shine off a military career.

“The brain gain would help in exposing our secondary school pupils to a wide range of options available for people who want to join the military.”

Earlier in his remarks, the leader of the delegation, (Team South-West), Brig.-Gen. Idowu Akinlawon, noted that the first exercise of the Brain Gain, which was first held in 2016, was introduced when the service chiefs realised that there were lots of erroneous beliefs that have prevented many brilliant youths from joining the armed forces.

He added that the brain gain would help the youths to begin to see the military as a good path to choose their career from.

In another development, almost 900,000 school children are going to benefit in the ongoing health awareness programme across 10 local councils in Ogun State.

Abiodun has, therefore, urged parents and guardians to work harmoniously with the health workers who are saddled with the responsibility of carrying out the ongoing school-based deworming exercise across the selected councils.

The governor, who spoke through the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Dr. Adesanya Ayinde in Abeokuta, said the exercise was an opportunity for the children to get rid of worms that may have adverse health effects and make them susceptible to skin and respiratory infections.

He said 839,273 children were being targeted across 4,900 schools in the designated 10 local councils.

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